lg goofiness

My former intern LG is so funny.

LG: "I have a great startup idea. I can explain it in 10 seconds."

Me: "Okay, what is it?"

LG: "Bet on weather."

Me: "Isn't that WeatherBill?"

LG: "It already exists?"

Me: "Yes, it's an ex-Googler startup. Some say it's one of the best ones."

LG: [navigating to it] "Aw, this isn't betting on weather! Protect your profits from bad weather. That's not what I meant! I want to literally bet on the weather."

Yishan: "You're doing futures investing based on the weather. You're betting - on the weather."

LG: "Damn it! I really wanted to build this. This one's not called BetOnWeather.com."

conclusion of the brother gift survey

Thanks to all the suggestions about a gift to give my brother for his birthday. I ended up getting him...

A kindle 3!

And a gift card for kindle books!



Tom called me on the phone, and we were talking as he opened the Amazon box. When he saw the big envelope (containing the gift card), he asked, "Oooh, is this a Minted birthday card? Did you send me a personalized card?"

I said, "The box shipped directly from Amazon! How would I have gotten the card into the Amazon box?"

Though, at Minted we just hired the Amazon engineer who coded their packing slips and shipping box sizing algorithms, so maybe I could've somehow gotten her to do it before leaving!

Another gift that Tom got was a trip to San Francisco, from his buddy in LA. So he is going to come visit next weekend. I wonder if I can convince him to go to a drag brunch show with me. A friend gave me his groupon for it, and it's expiring.

updated bucket list

I've now done one of the items on my bucket list. This is the updated list:

1. Take my dad to Russia on a trip.
2. Have a family.
3. Eat at Gary Danko.
4. Have a small, live Christmas tree in my home. Decorate the tree. Here is an example of what the tree could look like:

breeze

This photo reminds me of Burning Man, even though it's 1). clean, and 2). next to a beautiful river, as opposed to miles away from any water. It's making me want to go for a weekend to Burning Man!

The best moment from Burning Man 2009 was sitting on top of a precarious four-story metallic structure, with Misha and Omst.

Elizabeth said, "At Burning Man, you see these couches that hundreds of people have sweated on. If you saw that in the Mission, you wouldn't want to go near it. But here you just sit right down on it, wearing very little clothing."

birthday gift for my brother

I need to buy a gift for my brother's 24th birthday in 10 days. What to get him?

He likes indoor rock climbing, video games, and Japanese films.